


Somethings Are Meant to Be

by audreyslove



Series: Signed Sealed Delivered [8]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:55:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25872469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audreyslove/pseuds/audreyslove
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Robin Hood
Series: Signed Sealed Delivered [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/932982
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Somethings Are Meant to Be

She loves moments like these. Moments when their gasping pants, those struggles to catch their breath, meld together in some sort of aftersex serenade. Her limbs feel boneless and pliant, and there's this sense of weightlessness as she comes down from her high.

 _He_ is next to her. Not just next to her, but all around her, like he always is after his climax. It never fails, no matter where they are, how much time they have, what position they are in…

After they finish he always pulls her close, shifts so he can take her in his arms, and presses these little chaste pecks into her hair and forehead.

And that's not supposed to be what _this_ is about, but she absolutely, positively _loves_ it.

"That was amazing," she rasps, her throat dry and sore from overuse.

"As it always is with you," Robin replies, popping a kiss to her lips as a perfect period to the sentence.

She's smiles feeling, well, proud. Because it always _is_ wonderful when they are together, isn't it?

And he's hardly inexperienced but he's told her she's the best he's ever had time and again, and from the way he is looking at her now, she believes him.

"I missed you all week," Regina admits. "I wanted you so bad on Thursday.. _."_

"Oh god don't bring that up," Robin groans, "I'll never forgive Emma, why wouldn't she give you a damn moment alone?"

Regina sighs and snuggles into him. "Mm, things are going well with Neal and she's excited. But, yes, I still wish we had our stolen moments on the way to the bathrooms, especially when you were blowing up my phone with those texts." She raises her eyebrows at him accusatorily. "That was unfair."

"That dress was unfair," he counters, nuzzling into her neck and planting a kiss there. "You are so fucking gorgeous, I can't help myself around you."

Whenever he says things like that, her heart skips a beat. This isn't anything. He's her dirty little secret, and she's his. She's not _supposed_ to feel like this. This is just a way to mutually destress. A friendly exchange of orgasms, and that's it. It can't lead anywhere else.

"I guess I'm the only one with self-control in this relationship," she quips. But when his eyes go wide, and he smirks at her in this adoring way, she realizes what she just said. The word 'relationship _'_ makes her blush, that wasn't what she meant, that's not… "Err, I didn't mean _relationship_ like—"

But his voice is soft and warm as he pulls her close. "Regina, love, how much longer are you going to make me wait?"

It throws her off, because he can't be asking what she thinks he's asking, can he? They discussed this, they agreed, it can't lead anywhere…

She turns to face him, tangling her legs in his, and bites her lip. "Oh, I don't think I've made you wait at all. And if you're asking how long I'll make you wait for _another_ round—"

"Not that." He smoothes a hand down her arm from shoulder down to her wrist until he's threading his fingers in hers. "This. When are you going to let us be together for real?"

"I…" Her mind goes blank, panic spreads over her body. There are no words, she's still in the afterglow, and he's dropped this on her. She swallows the lump in her chest down and then reminds him, "that's not what this is."

"It is for me," he says simply, "It's always been what this is, and I've not been entirely honest with you, but that ends now."

Her throat goes dry and her mind is reeling. This isn't what she expected when she snuck into his apartment this afternoon. Technically she had asked Robin if he wanted grab a quick bite to eat, but they both knew what would happen when she showed up to his place, freshly waxed and flushed with a need to be touched. She just signed up for a quick little afternoon fuck and cuddle.

She didn't expect to talk about the feelings they have both been dancing around for… years, if she's being honest with herself.

"I…" she starts, swallowing heavily. "We agreed that this was just… meaningless. A no strings attached type of activity..."

"You're right. We did. But it was never meaningless to me, and I can't do this anymore. I don't want to watch you fall in love with another man and leave this. I want _us_ to be real." He bites his lip and adds, "Seeing you with Eric last week was pure torture. I knew I had no right but the moment i heard about it I just…"

She winces, thinking of that day. Robin had been visiting Emma when she was getting ready. And Emma just dropped that she had a date, like it was nothing. She knew she sensed something in the way he looked at her, as she did a wardrobe change, as she did her makeup. That sweet, soft little look that didn't look like jealousy, so she ignored. But now she's placed it. It was _fear,_ not jealousy. He was afraid of losing her. "I don't… you know I don't do relationships. And nothing happened with Eric anyway, like I told you—"

"I know, and you have no idea how relieved I was to hear that. But I saw you all dressed up to see him, looking all sexy and sweet, and I thought to myself, who could help but fall for you? And I know you said you don't do relationships, but I can't help but worry that it's only a matter of time, and I can't, Regina, I can't just sit back and wait for someone to take you from me. Not without letting you know how I feel, at least."

And she knows what it means, because it really is awful to watch Robin talk to other girls. Every time Regina sees him near some cute co-ed, she sits back wondering if _she_ is the one, the person that will take him away from her forever. And each time this happens her heart burns with a possessiveness she has no right to feel. She really doesn't want to lose him, but she tells herself to fight it, to calm down, because she has no right to think this way.

"It's not exactly easy for me, either, you know. That girl I saw you with yesterday— " She speaks in only a whisper, grateful when Robin interrupts her with a _let me explain._

"That's Jack, or Jacqueline, technically. We hooked up at Ruby's party a few months ago, and it was shit. Or it wasn't, it was fine, but it was nothing compared to how it is with you so I stopped it after just a bit of kissing and touching over clothes. And it only got that far because I saw you talking to Jefferson, and I just thought I had to stop thinking of us… as a couple. She's interested, and I am _not_ and that's exactly what I told her yesterday _._ I haven't been with anyone since that night, and I've no desire to. You're so special to me, the thought of being with anyone else…" He shakes his head, as if he were talking about downing a bottle of castor oil. "I'd choose you over anyone in this world, it's not fair to start up something with someone else."

"I didn't know," she whispers, because she didn't, she really didn't. "I'd see you with others and you seemed so comfortable, so I just assumed—"

"But you have to know how I feel about you," he presses, "you're the first person I want to talk to each morning, the first I come to for advice, when I have good news you're the first person I want to share it with." He pulls her in closer, and she's suddenly embarrassed of how loud her heart is pounding. "You know I think you're the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen," (she laughs in disbelief) "I'm _serious,_ you've no idea how fucking perfect you are for me, but I don't want you to think it's all about looks. It's not. I love your heart," he dips down to kiss her chest, and that's when the tears she's been fighting break through, and her vision goes blurry. "I can't imagine my life without you. I can't imagine going a _day_ in my life without spending a part of it with you."

He kisses her forehead, looking at her so warmly, so lovingly. She feels the same, of course she does. But dating him is so risky. It could cost her the most important friendship in her life — friendships, actually, she could lose Emma, and Mary Margaret, and _fuck_ if things go poorly, she could lose _Robin,_ and that's absolutely terrifying.

"Robin," she breathes. She scratches fingers through the scruff on his jawline. when her palm passes close to his lips, he tilts his head to plant a quick peck there.

"I don't want you to think I don't love this, Regina, because I do. I love fucking you. I love holding you like this, I love being there for you as a friend in public, and being for you _here_ in private. I even like the sneaking around. I like having a little secret with you. But it's not enough." He must catch the hitch in her breath, and combs his fingers through her hair gently as if to soothe. "If it's all you want, I'll live, I'll take this over nothing, over not having you in my life. And I'll wait, if you want me to wait. For as long it takes. But this is not all I want."

The tears that had filled her eyes finally fall as she blinks. "Robin, I promised Emma—"

"Yes and so did I. But that was nearly four years ago. Since then you've become everything to me, and I don't care about broken promises. I just want you."

"If we do this," her voice cracks, and the sound of the sheer vulnerability laced in her voice would embarrass her, if it were anyone other than Robin here. But she's never worried about sounding weak in front of him. Not since the moment they met. "If we actually _date,_ and it goes poorly—"

"It won't."

It's absurd how sure he sounds, as if he's stating some fact. Gravity exists, the earth spins on its axis, and Robin and Regina can date without it ending poorly. He's such an optimist, all the time. But she is not. And she has so much to lose. So she shakes her head and squeezes her eyes tight and protests. "You can't know that, Robin, it could, and if it does, I'll lose _all_ of you, I'll lose Mary Margaret, Emma, and you. I just don't think I could take that, I—"

He's kissing away her tears, all soft and sweet. He then brings those tear stained lips to hers, for a final smooch. "You'll never lose me, ever. There's nothing you could do to change the way I feel about you. So put that out of your mind. Emma will be upset — at me more than you, mind you. But she'll get over it. And quite frankly I'm positive you won't lose Emma either. She loves you as much as she loves me. And she wants us to be happy, and she's had to have known things were heading in this direction. She's not blind. Far from it, actually."

She purses her lips and considers his words. Emma and Robin are family, and though Emma has told her, so many times, that she thinks of her as a sister, as a missing piece of the puzzle, she doesn't believe for a second she'd choose her over blood. So she takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "It's a big risk."

"Mmhm, it is. I want to take it, though." He sighs and rubs a thumb over her tear stained cheekbone. The touch sends shivers down her spine as he rubs lightly over damp skin. "What we have is great, isn't it? I want to feel like this forever. With you."

She wants that too. But it's still taking a huge leap off a steep cliff, and there's so many unknowns. "What if part of the reason this is so good is _because_ it's a secret? What if once the secret is out, things become stale, and boring, and—"

"It won't be."

"What makes you so confident?"

"Because I'm in love with you, Regina." He smiles, eyes focused on hers.

It takes her aback, has her swallowing a gasp in the back of her throat. She always thought someone saying sue this to her would be terrifying, but she's not scared at all. She's… giddy. She's almost drunk on emotion, warm thoughts flooding her mind and setting her afloat.

She closes her eyes for a second, and swallows a little laugh. And then she doesn't fight the wide smile that spreads across her face. "You are?" She asks, still reeling.

"Mhm," he answers, reaching out to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear.

Robin loves her. The man who can sense when she's upset by the _tone_ of her _text message,_ and is always there to lend a helpful ear when he does. The man who has picked her up from parties that turned sour, without a word of judgment. The man who remembers how hard her father's birthday is every year, who orders from her favorite chinese restaurant and lets her pick whatever movie she wants, strokes her hair as she cries on his lap… god, of course he loves her, it's so obvious now.

"So you see, I am serious about us. You're the best for me, I'm sure of it. I've never been more sure if anything in my life." Robin frowns, and she sees a glimmer of vulnerability. "I'm not expecting that you feel the same, not yet anyway. I just want you to give me a chance to love you in the open. And if there's any chance you feel like you could—"

She kisses him, deeply, just to shut him up, and to give her racing heart time to slow, if only just enough to speak. She pours every frantic lovesick memory she's had with him over the past four years. It's a hell of a kiss, passionate, a bit sloppy, warm and familiar but somehow electric with the knowledge that this is the start of something new.

When he pulls out of the kiss, there's a sloppy grin. Does that kiss mean _yes, I will date you, Robin?_

"No," she says coolly, as she runs her fingers through his hair.

He furrows his brow, and then looks at her in what could almost be described as desperation. "Regina, I—"

"That kiss means _I am in love with you, too."_ she interrupts, smiling slyly.

And it catches Robin off guard. She can tell by the the way he draws in a deep breath, the way his eyes widen, and his body goes stiff.

"I've imagined telling you that I love you a thousand times, I don't think I ever let myself believe you'd say it back," he laughs, "I just…"

"I've told you before," she points out. She's said "I love you" to him when she was drunk, she's said it in the middle of sex, she's said it in those exhausted moments before sleep overtakes her.

"As did I," he reminds. He always returned the sentiment, didn't he? And sometimes said it unprompted. Still, she always thought it was polite, or maybe the love of a very close friend. "And as much as I wanted to believe those "I love you"s were real, you had a habit of saying them and then falling into bed with someone else the very next day."

She laughs, but he doesn't. Jefferson was a distraction, and easy person to fool around with when she needed to prove to herself that Robin meant nothing to her. It was stupid, cowardly and she'd say unfair to Jefferson, but he never cared about her anyway.

"I was being a scared idiot. But that's over now," she assures. And then she's kissing him again, kisses that break into smiles.

"I know this is a lot for one afternoon," he sighs, after a few moments have passed. "I won't ask anything of you except this: Please don't be with anyone else. From now on it's just you and me. I can wait to hold your hand in public, to tell the world about us... that can come when _you_ are ready. But for now— "

"No one else. For either of us," she agrees. She kisses his lips, and then the apple of his cheeks. It's only then, when she tastes the salty wetness of his tears, that she realizes she's not the only one who has shed tears over this. And Robin doesn't cry — he never does. It throws her off, has her terrified as she asks, "are you okay?"

He nods, and she watches his face flush red. "I've been wanting to talk to you about this for….years, honestly. It's a bit overwhelming. It finally happened, and I can breathe again."

Oh. Happy tears then. A warm relief floods her as she sighs contently and presses close against him.

"I love you," she says again, just because she can say it now, without the anxiety and fear she would have every time the words slipped out before.

"I love you too," he says, voice soft and cracking. "very much."

"I know," she says with a smile. "That's why you are going to be the one to tell Emma about us."

He laughs, holds her close, but denies her the request. "We'll do it together. When the time is right."

"Mm," she agreed. "It's all about timing."


End file.
